>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, our connection this hour was made at a town hall meeting for longtime New York Congressman Jerry Nadler.

26 year old Liam Elkind was in the crowd that day, and he asked a question, what can everyday New Yorkers like himself do to help Democrats stand up to Donald Trump?

Congressman Nadler responded that he should just donate to the D. C. The national committee that works to elect Democrats.

Liam told the Guardian that he was deeply unsatisfied with that answer, and he got to thinking about it.

Nadler is a 17 term incumbent.

He'd been in office longer than Liam had been alive.

So Liam decided to primary him.

The Guardian reports that a wave of younger candidates, frustrated by what they see as an aging, sometimes out of touch Democratic establishment, is launching primary challenges against some of the party's most senior incumbents.

Here's more of their reporting.

Quote in Georgia, Everton Blair also sought answers from his long serving congressman, David Scott, at a panel event in 2025.

When Blair asked him about Democrats legislative strategy.

The 80 year old lawmaker was dismissive.

I don't know who sent you all, he said.

Blair decided at age 34 he's going to make a bid for Scott's seat.

Jake Rakoff began to worry when he noticed his former boss, 70 year old California Congressman Brad Sherman, repeating the same anti-Trump talking points he had deployed eight years prior to the 37 year old Rakoff.

It was a sign that the Democratic Party's aging establishment wasn't going to learn, so he is now one of two millennial aged Jake's challenging Congressman Sherman.

The 119th Congress is the third oldest in U.S.

history, and three members, all Democrats, have died in office in the last year, more than a dozen House Democrats who will be 70 or older by Election Day 2026 are facing challengers, according to an analysis by Axios, though not all have said whether they plan to seek reelection.

End quote.

But the Guardian notes that the incumbents are pushing back.

They argue that their years of experience have delivered tangible results, and a crisis is not a smart time to turn to political newcomers.

All of which brings us to the town of Brighton.

This hour.

We're not talking about Congress.

We're not talking about national politics.

And depending on whom you ask, the Guardian story that I was just referencing is either perfectly applicable on the local level, or maybe it's not relevant at all.

Well, here's the story.

Brighton Town supervisor Bill Maley has served eight terms.

He's just turned 70.

He was seeking a ninth term town council member.

Nate Salzman is 33 years old, and he decided that he wasn't going to wait to make a run for the supervisor's office.

No doubt, some political operatives told Salzman that it wasn't his time yet.

Be patient, they said.

You're less than half the supervisor's age.

You've got plenty of time.

For his part, here's what he said about running for a ninth term.

Quote.

These days, some people would have you believe that experience isn't always a good thing.

I draw on my deep range of experience every single day in doing this job, and I know that my experience makes me a better leader, makes me a better team player, and all of that has made me a better supervisor.

End quote.

The Democratic designation battle was extremely close in Brighton.

As my colleague Jeremy Moehle reported, the committee meeting lasted for hours.

The supervisor designation required multiple rounds of voting.

Maley won the first round by three total votes, but that didn't get him above the needed 50%.

He lost the second round by the same margin, according to party officials, but there were fewer invalidated and write in ballots in the second round, and Nate Salzman got 50.4% of the total.

He got the designation.

Days later, Bill Maley announced he would not seek reelection.

There would be no primary fight for the job that he has held for well over a decade now.

We invited Supervisor Maley to come on this program.

He respectfully declined today, noting that he is not running again.

So this hour, we sit down with the Democratic candidate for Brighton Town supervisor.

It's Nate Salzman.

He's a Democratic town council member as well.

Welcome back to the program.

Thanks for being here.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> And I want to say about Supervisor Maley, he's been on this program multiple times.

I hope he will continue to come on this program, both in his last year in office and in whatever he does next, because he has been one of the accessible leaders in a very knowledgeable person about a range of issues for years.

So all of our dealings have been as a person who's had very a lot of access, very respectful.

And I want to start by asking you, you know, you're on council since 2023.

You got elected in 2023.

>> That's right.

>> So why did you decide after one term on council on the town board to challenge the supervisor?

>> I'm going to give a shout out to one of your listeners, Evan, my grandfather, he's 94 years old.

He's a listener in Buffalo, New York, and he watches you online and every day, not every day.

I try every day, but every week.

We touch base.

And he always asks me, what am I working on?

And if I get into any, you know, everyday topics.

He says, no, no, no, I mean, what are you working on that's going to matter five years from now, ten years from now.

And, you know, I think back to to the show that you had myself and Senator Cooney on and we were talking about how can we make government work better, not just at the congressional level, but also at the local level?

You know, for Senator Cooney, at the state level, for me, at the local level.

And, you know, I think about my friends and my neighbors and and my constituents who who all the time are asking me about building more housing, are asking me about how do I start up a small business.

I'm trying to open a local coffee shop on Monroe Avenue.

I can't figure it out.

I think about my neighbors who are struggling with the affordability crisis and the increasing tax burden on those neighbors.

And and lastly, the communications gap that we have.

And so there is urgency to solve some of these problems.

And that's why I took the took the jump to solve some of these problems.

>> Presumably the supervisor is also working on those problems though, right?

>> Yes.

But you know, and let me just back up and say this.

I greatly admire and respect supervisor Bill Bailey.

I mean, this is a man who has dedicated decades of service to our town, going back to when he was a town attorney.

And we we have some differences of opinion.

and, and that's why I decided to run for office.

And of course, he's working on solutions.

And I would just say there are some differences in our policies.

>> So we'll talk policy coming up here.

I want to talk about the backdrop of this kind of a decision.

Supervisor Maley, well known in the party well known in the town.

And, you know, you are you are less than half his age.

And so I, I don't know for sure.

I've been told by people who might know that there were at least some people who told you, you know, I don't know yet.

Like, like maybe not yet.

I don't know how much you're willing to say, but can you take me through what it was like hearing from the party apparatus when you said, look, I may challenge the supervisor.

How many people were telling you?

Not yet, man, not.

Not right now.

>> Yeah.

I'll tell you this.

You know, in my career, in politics, and I and I started out, my first job in politics was I was just knocking doors 12 hours a day, and I was trying to convince people to come knock doors with me.

And, you know, I traveled around the country.

I managed campaigns starting at the school board level, working my way up to the congressional level.

And, you know, what I learned is the real politics isn't made in a in a high rise or in the party headquarters.

Real politics is neighbor to neighbor, and it's talking to residents and constituents.

And so after I came on your show, folks said, hey, Nate, I saw you talking about building more housing.

Why can't you do it?

And then and in my conversations, folks said, well, why don't you write about it?

So I started a Substack where I talked about housing and land use and small businesses and tax fairness and a few more of my neighbors said, well, why can't you do it?

Why don't you run and do that?

And, you know, before we I mean, I'll tell you this, the week that we announced our campaign, we had more than 70 people sign up to volunteer.

And as I went through that list, most of those people were they're not members of the Democratic Committee.

They've never contributed to a campaign before, but they saw that they could be involved in making real change.

So I'll be honest with you, I didn't feel like such an underdog because I had so much community support with me when I launched this campaign.

>> That is a very good politicians answer that avoids the question of what the party leaders told you.

But, but, but which I'll get back to.

But let's let's talk more about what the people of Brighton were telling you.

So you're talking to them about what they want, and the feedback that you're getting is, hey, you're talking housing.

You're talking about things that are hard to do or currently impossible to do.

Why can't we do it?

How do we do it?

but at the same time, you might also ask them, hey, you've had the same supervisor for eight terms.

What do you think?

And I think a lot.

Of the electoral results indicate that Brighton likes Bill Maley.

Right?

So what are people telling you about that?

>> I'll tell you this.

There's been one election in my lifetime, so I'm born and Brighton my my grandparents first moved to Brighton.

and, you know, I was born in Brighton.

I went to high school, graduated high school here in Brighton.

My my Brighton high school sweetheart.

And and in the course of of my lifetime here, there's only been one election for supervisor.

And and you're correct, Bill Maley.

He's a good man.

He's well-liked.

But I also heard folks that wanted to hear an alternative opinion.

So we've been told in Brighton for a long time that.

>> You mean one competitive election.

>> One competitive election.

>> Okay, you said there's been one election.

There's been one competitive.

>> Thank you, thank you.

Okay.

One competitive election in 2011, the year after I graduated from high school.

And so I think there was a desire from residents to hear an alternative opinion.

And even if folks said to me, I don't know who the heck you are, and I don't know about some of these ideas, folks were open minded to to hear another set of ideas and to, to weigh them for, for this election season.

>> Okay.

Fair enough.

And now let's I mean, you don't have to answer.

Of course you can say whatever you want on this program, and I can ask whatever I want.

So I'll just ask you again, though, were there party leaders who told you don't do this yet?

>> Yeah, I want to be careful, Evan.

And not because I'm trying to give the politicians the answer, but because private conversations are private.

>> Okay?

>> And but I'll tell you this.

When when I was weighing whether to run or not.

I gave significantly more weight to the conversations I was having with my neighbors and my and my constituents, who I was serving every day.

then than other folks outside of Brighton.

I have very good relationships with folks in the party.

I've, you know, I started a digital media consulting firm back in 2020 and worked on most Democrats campaigns.

And I have great relationships with those folks.

The only county legislator who lives in Brighton, Sue Hughes Smith, was at my announcement.

She endorsed me Clayton Jones, a new school board member, came and endorsed me.

So this is not a an anti-establishment campaign, if you will.

but I'll tell you this.

It was so it was so early on in the process.

Who knows what would have happened would have happened down the line.

But really, the consideration was, what are my neighbors saying?

And that's that's what I went off of.

>> When I heard about your campaign.

I had just read the Guardian's piece, and the Guardian's piece was from late 2025.

And again, it's not quite the same thing it is.

The Guardian's reporting is on Democrats in congressional races across the country.

Young Democrats, 20 something, 30 something and some young 40 somethings challenging 70, 80, 88 year old, you know, long time members of Congress.

So it's not exactly the same thing.

Do you feel there's a parallel or do you think that's a totally different thing?

>> It's hard to say.

It's hard to say.

Every race is different.

you know, every race is different, Evan.

And, you know, Bill is a is a strong progressive leader.

I think some folks have been challenged because they haven't pushed back enough on Donald Trump, and they've done business as usual for a long time.

It's hard to generalize all the races around the country with just this race.

And so I'll tell you this when I go around, I don't talk about the national races.

frankly, I don't talk much about national politics.

I talk about, can we get avenues open for lunch and, and and it's more of that.

It's, you know, if you want to compare us to anything, I guess you could say we're like Harvey Milk talking about picking up dog poop in the park.

And that's really where my my interest is and where my, my conversations have been with, with the residents.

>> In general.

Do you think the Democratic Party establishment is out of touch?

>> You know, I it's a good question, Evan.

I would say that I think that our party needs to try new things.

And, you know, I think that our argument and when I came on your show to talk about the abundance agenda, you know, I had argued that if our party's best case to the voters is we need to return to what we had before, we're going to continue to lose to the party of Donald Trump.

And we have to argue for a government that works better for people.

That really takes on the affordability crisis, that tries new things, that has new ideas, that welcomes new people to the to the party.

And I'll tell you this a lot.

You know, I talked about those 70 volunteers who signed up the week.

I announced I was running for office.

My work now is trying to get those 70 people involved in the Democratic Party.

And folks have come up to me and they said, well, I've never volunteered for a campaign before.

And I said, perfect, you should go volunteer for other campaigns because people need to hear new perspectives and new ideas.

And so I hope that our national leaders are listening to that as well.

>> When you decided to challenge the supervisor, you knew there would be a designation battle.

We're going to talk in a moment about how that went down.

But you also knew that if you lost that, there it there's no telling what that would have been.

Maybe that would have just been.

Okay.

Fine.

I took a shot.

I thought it was the right thing to do.

I go back to serving the town, or maybe some people in the party say, hey, you know, come on.

Like you stepped out of line, you didn't win.

Now you're going to the back line.

I don't know, I think I'm hearing you say you're going to listen more to people than you are to backroom deals.

I get that, I get that, but were you nervous about what would have happened if you didn't get this designation?

>> Sure.

You know, over this process, I appreciate you calling me a young candidate because I've gotten several more gray hairs.

>> Younger than me.

Man.

You're young.

Anybody younger than me.

>> So I appreciate that.

And but I'll tell you this you know, when you are, when you're in a designation when we were building this campaign, we almost started with the assumption that we were not going to win designation.

And and I say that with all due respect to the committee, it is hard to argue change.

But I firmly believe this, Evan, that if you are somebody who is in politics that wants to run for office, you should be doing so from a position of, I think we can do better.

And Brighton is a great town.

I mean, there's a reason why my family's been here for, for now, for generations.

It's a great town, but I ran for office because I thought we can do better.

And when you're making an argument for new policies, whether it's to build new housing or to change the way we communicate with constituents it is hard to do that in a very quick time period against a very formidable candidate with a strong track record.

So I was assuming that we were in this for the long haul.

And yes, it's a it's a risk to my own career.

But you don't you don't get into politics because you're thinking about career advancement.

You get into politics to change the way things work.

>> Let me also just say a word about terminology because I think this is important.

Whether we're talking about quote, unquote young candidates or older candidates, I don't use them as pejoratives in either direction.

I don't think a 26 year old should be told that's too young to run for something.

I don't think a 33 year old or a 42 year old.

And the word young can be used as sort of a minimizing pejorative.

That's not my intention here.

Nor would I say that a 70 year old or an 80 year old or any age is too old to serve.

>> every person is different.

So I don't seek to use that as pejorative.

I'm only noting one of the trend lines and one of the trend lines in the Democratic Party is that, especially at the national level, the leadership, as it has gotten older, there have been growing questions about when do you make room for the next generation?

That's it.

So it's not about, you know, one is better or worse, or one is meant to be minimized.

I hope that's.

>> Oh yeah, of course, of course, of course.

>> Okay.

So you get to the designation situation.

And this is where the average listener may know something about it.

And you may not, because I think the average listener is going, okay, well, you're you're going to primary the supervisor, right?

You're going to both be in the primary.

And the answer is no.

Again, if you're just joining us, the supervisor of Brighton, Bill Maley, is not running for reelection.

He intended to get the designation and seek another term.

And he didn't get it.

And Nate Salzman, who's my guest?

Brighton Town Council member, town board member.

decided to to challenge for the designation and got it in a very, very narrow fashion.

So what's the designation?

Explain for listeners what this actually is and why it matters.

>> So the Democratic Committee, the Democratic Party in Monroe County, is split into Democratic committees by town and then in the city, by district.

And this these seats, there are 150 seats in Brighton.

I believe almost all of them are full, which is fantastic.

But you can join this committee if you are a Democrat registered to vote in the town of Brighton, you could show up to two meetings, do a training and join the party and join the Democratic Committee.

And then in January, this committee gets together.

They hear from all the candidates from a position.

We answer questions, almost debate style, and then the committee takes a vote and you need to get 50% plus one to to win the party endorsement.

Now a candidate can can say, well, I didn't win the party endorsement.

Well, that's okay.

I will continue on to the primary where every Democrat can vote.

but you're you're correct.

Evan.

Supervisor Maley chose to to after the party endorsement drop out.

I'll say this.

The you we won with 50%, literally plus one.

So half the people in this room after four hours went home disappointed.

So I'm.

Maybe I'm transitioning to your next question here.

I know I have a lot of work to do to build trust from folks who have who have known Supervisor Maley for a long time, who showed up, who waited for four hours, listened to the debate, listened to the questions, voted for him twice, and went home disappointed.

Yeah.

>> You did not win in a landslide.

>> I did not win in a landslide.

And right now my work is how do I gain the trust of of the half the folks in that room and then the rest of the town who may be listening to your show saying, who is this guy?

>> Okay, fair.

Fair enough.

and again, in our second half hour, we're going to kind of work through ideas and policies at town levels here.

let me make sure I understand exactly what happened, though.

When you say you won by 50% plus one, how many people are we talking?

How many total votes in the designation?

>> Yeah, I believe the final tally was 57 to 54.

And then there were a few people who wrote in who just abstained or wrote in a third person.

>> So it's just over 100 people.

And this is where I think the average listener would say, well, okay, that's a designation.

But why shouldn't there be a primary?

And the answer is there could have been.

Right.

But the supervisor decided to respect the designation.

My understanding reading a statement and not continue his campaign.

>> That's correct.

You got it.

>> But he could have.

>> He could have, absolutely.

>> If you had lost 57, 54, if you had lost by the same margin, would you have primaried?

>> I would have, I would have.

>> You would have stayed in.

>> Okay.

And, you know, I believe that primaries are not necessarily a bad thing.

And and I respect the supervisor's choice.

And, you know, we haven't had time to touch base on on why he made that choice.

But I respect his choice.

And and again, it's up to me now to earn the trust of those folks who went home disappointed.

>> Is it correct that in the first round of voting, in the designation process, he had you beat by three votes, but he didn't have 50%?

>> That's correct, that's correct.

>> I mean, that is a razor thin margin.

>> And, you know, as somebody who, you know, Evan, I mentioned my career was I would travel around the country and was managing these local campaigns, and I worked in Colorado.

They have a caucus like Iowa and the presidential year 2016.

And I got to experience the chaos of that caucus.

And, you know, for a political geek like me, this this type of thing is fun to, to be around.

It's truly democracy in action.

It's, you know, the supervisor and I going person to person in this room saying, hey, we're we're practically deadlocked.

Can I, can I bring you over to my side?

And it's, you know, it was stressful that night, but looking back on it, it's truly a great exercise in democracy that folks got together and, and, and participate in this way.

>> Now, obviously you have worked with the supervisor and you continue to work with him.

Yes.

When you decided to run, did you talk to him directly about it?

>> Yes, yes I did.

>> What are you able to characterize what that conversation was like or what he told you?

>> Well, I'll tell you.

You know, we we we've always had a very good professional relationship.

And, you know, we we just have some, some some differences of policy.

And, you know, there there are times when you could talk through those differences of policy and come up with a compromise.

And then there are other times when you say, you know, we agree to disagree, it doesn't mean that his, his it doesn't mean either of us are bad people.

We can just have civil disagreement.

And then we have elections to solve those differences.

And so there were always there were always, you know, reasonable conversations.

And it led us to a point where, where we said, well, we agree to disagree and we'll see what the voters think.

>> Was he angry or disappointed?

>> well, again, I don't want to get into to to personal conversations, but I'll tell you this.

He's he's always been professional.

he's, you know, a lifetime of service to this community that I'm.

I'm so grateful for.

And I don't want to get into emotional states of, you know.

>> I think that's fair.

but since he decided not to run again.

Yeah.

You haven't spoken to him.

>> It's only.

Well, I'll tell you this, Evan, the I was also in Puerto Rico right after designation, I decided to to visit my my my in-laws have family there.

So we went away for vacation.

the supervisor was in New York City.

there's been a little bit of travel logistics that may get in the way, too, but I look forward.

>> I'm confident you both have phones, though, but there hasn't been a phone call.

>> Well, you know, we it's, you know, we're.

I'm sure we'll sit down and we'll talk about what happens next.

>> All of which is to say, are you worried about being able to work with them this year?

>> No I'm not.

No, no, no.

And you know, we've exchanged text messages and emails on government issues.

And so I guess I'm saying we have talked on government issues.

We haven't had a chance to catch up just on on the state of the race.

But we still we're still doing the job.

And and, you know, he's I always I always appreciate his perspective on government.

>> Now let me tell you about some of what I read after I read the Guardian piece.

Again, the Guardian writes about not local races, not the town of Brighton.

>> No, but.

>> About but about younger Democrats nationally deciding to challenge their long time congressional reps.

Here's how some Republican strategists on X, which is, you know, not great for my mental health.

not a place I spend as much time as probably spending any time there is questionable but on on Twitter on X, a number of Republican strategists saw the Guardian piece and they said, this is great for Republicans because here's what's happening.

You have a long time establishment Democrats who do have experience, who are centrists, who over time have been maybe were firebrands when they were younger and they became centrists over time.

And they're running against a bunch of, again, this is what the Republican strategists are saying.

A bunch of young socialists and the socialists have the energy, and they're going to win.

I don't think you're a socialist.

>> I'm not a socialist.

No.

Okay.

You're a.

>> You're a Democrat.

>> A Democrat.

>> You're not a democratic socialist either.

You're not a Mamdani Democrat.

>> no.

No, no, he's he well, he's the he's the mayor of New York City.

And I respect his politics.

>> But you might be different.

Adviser Brighton very different place.

>> Very different place.

>> Do you think that that's just a strategist?

Those are just Republican strategists making hay and trying to stoke this idea that there's internal division?

Or do you think that younger candidates in the Democratic Party do tend to be further to the left, and the establishment tends to be more centrist?

>> I think that's Republican consultants making hay.

I'll tell you this, I grew up, I was a wrestler and, you know, I was in the Brighton High School wrestling team and and I know a lot of I run into a lot of brightonians who were and, and any wrestler can tell you that every week there was a wrestler off and all the, you know, all the 140 pounders would wrestle and the top person would wrestle varsity that week and then JV and it didn't matter if you were varsity last week because you had to wrestle off again to get your position.

And I think it made our team better.

And I think it's going to make our Democratic team better if we have competitions in New York City and Brighton and anywhere else, anywhere else.

And if Republicans are scared of competition, I mean, you know.

>> I now now you sound like the strategist.

Hey are you going to are we going to be able to talk to a Republican opponent in this race?

You have no idea.

>> I don't know.

>> That's not your job.

>> It's not right.

Right.

I'm not going to recruit a Republican candidate.

But.

>> But to your point, you said that in your adult lifetime and maybe in your lifetime, there's been one competitive supervisor's race in your town, correct?

One.

>> Correct.

2011.

>> I don't think that that's all that healthy.

By the.

>> Way, I agree with you.

I agree with you.

>> By that I mean, I mean, I think Republicans should run in cities and Democrats should run in rural areas.

And I think that people should have choices.

>> I agree with you.

And by the way, that's not a criticism of the supervisor.

I mean, the supervisor's job is not to.

>> Criticize or.

>> Anybody I know.

>> I'm just observing for people.

It's always nice to have choice.

>> I agree with you.

I agree with you.

Yes.

And you know, somebody said to me the other day, they said, you know, Nate, if you take these positions and these are big changes, you may be primaried by somebody that wants to return to the way things used to be.

And I said, that's fine.

That's it's not so much of a threat.

That's that's good.

We should have a competition.

And in fact, I still want to go forward and treat this campaign like I still have an opponent.

The opponent is it's supervisor.

It's not Supervisor Maley, it's status quo.

And I'm going to try to run to convince folks that we should do better than status quo.

>> Okay?

And bottom line here is what happens for this rest of this year, not necessarily in your hand.

Obviously, you're going to be the Democrat on the ballot.

That makes you a heavy, heavy favorite.

I mean, you don't consider that a done deal yet.

>> No not yet.

No no, no.

Look, petitioning, even.

>> Though history says.

>> History says, you know, petitioning is happening right now.

There could be a an effort underway.

either either on the Republican side or maybe I'm very out of the loop of the Democratic circles of my own town.

but, you know, until until that that night in November, Evan, I'm going to keep campaigning and working like I've got the toughest opponent possible.

>> why do you think there are times where, whether it's a Republican or the Democratic Party's, there is opposition to the idea of primaries, the idea that there's an incumbent in a state assembly, in a town supervisor in Congress.

And, you know, somebody is going to primary the party establishment tends not to like that.

And you're saying you're sitting here saying that can be healthy.

That doesn't have to be.

You would have done it if Bill Maley had gotten the three votes that he needed that first round, you would have stayed in in primaries.

Yes.

So you're saying you think that's healthy?

>> I think so.

And, you know, I'm I'm the wrong guy to ask that question to because my my career of working on campaigns has actually been to take the underdog in the primary.

You know, my first I managed the campaign for Damon Meeks, who the state assembly member and, you know, going back, you know, Damon Meeks was not the chosen candidate of David Gant.

And there was a chosen candidate.

He was not the designated candidate.

And and we, you know, we worked together.

We were successful.

And, you know, he is he's been the Assembly member there ever since, you know.

by the way.

Yeah.

>> He's getting primaried.

>> He is getting primaried.

>> And you think that's that's okay.

>> That's democracy.

That's democracy.

>> Mercedes Vazquez, Simmons County legislator, is Primarying Damon Meeks.

>> That's right.

And he was primaried two years ago, and I believe he was primaried two years before that.

So, Damon Assembly Member Meeks, who's a good friend of mine, I mean, he I when he and I talk, he doesn't say to me, oh, Nate, you know, this is so terrible.

I can't believe I have a primary.

He looks forward to the chance to make his case to the voters.

And I think that's the right attitude for Democrats to have across the board.

>> Let me grab a phone call from in Brighton.

This is Barbara.

Hi, Barbara.

Go ahead.

>> Hi there.

I just wanted to speak to the idea of neighborhoods.

I have gotten to know Nate as one of the neighbors and I got to know him that way before I even realized that he was on on my Brighton.

council, and I just find him to be, like Jeremy Cooney, a down to earth, reasonable, smart, sensible, you know dare I say politician, because most of them are bullcrap.

But he is not.

And I think most people listening to your show know exactly who Barbara from Brighton is.

So I encourage them if they want to have my full opinion, they're welcome to call me or text me or whatever.

And I would suggest this if you get if you know, Nate especially, but if you get to know Nate and become a supporter, I'm coming up with the phrase be one, tell one, which is how you can help him explain himself to all the people who say, who the hell is Nate Salzman?

You know and I think that's, you know, that's what Obama did and it worked.

And I just think it's an important thing to do to spread, not just talk about them, but what he is talking about wanting to do and represent.

And when I first read his original blurb that came out on Facebook, which all us oldies are still on he he explained very straightforwardly, plain language.

One two, three four, five, you know, not 50 pages of crap.

And so I have encouraged him to republish that every possible media level they can because it's straightforward.

And you understand what he's standing for.

And I completely agree with him that Bill Malley has done a great job over the years.

I have no never mind about that.

I'm a friend of Phil's, you know, blah blah blah.

But it's time to change.

And I think this guy has a brain and a heart, and he really needs to be elected.

So that's what I have to say.

And I also want to just quickly add that that issue of local level versus national level is super important because there's no hope for local level.

I mean, the man's an idiot and he's a dangerous creep.

And we're not going to be being able to.

>> You're talking about the national level.

You're talking about the president.

>> Yes.

>> Okay.

>> so we're not going to be able to affect too much that way until we can vote them out of office or impeach them.

And so the most important thing is how our lives go.

And right now, I'm having one hell of a time paying my local taxes.

And I, you know, I used to be able to spend an X amount at wages and come home with five bags.

Now, I'm lucky if I can come home with two and I'm a retired person on a on a fixed income.

And you know, I know that Nate's not going to be able to wave a magic wand on that, but what I'm saying is local issues, potholes, this, that and the other.

Those are what we need to work on.

And that's what Nate's going to be able to do.

And I also agree that housing is important, but let's make housing for affordable housing, not 10 million more pieces of housing for people who have a lot of money.

Well, so this is too long a comment.

>> That's all right, Barbara.

>> That's all right.

I have to say.

>> Well, thank you for the phone call, Barbara.

And I know a lot of bright Brightonians know Barbara, but a couple of points there.

First of all, I've got a number of comments already on the Monroe Avenue potholes.

Mr.

Council member.

>> Yeah.

No kidding.

>> Okay, so people want to hear if you're going to fix the Monroe Avenue potholes.

>> Yeah, of course.

You know, look, I get a number of comments for that when I get home for dinner.

that's exactly right.

And, you know, I'll tell you this council member Sanguineti and I actually were back to back calling Senator Jeremy Cooney and who chairs transportation because that is a state road.

And I got to tell you, I got off the phone with him, and so did Councilmember Sanguineti.

And then later that afternoon, they were filling potholes on that street, and I. So I say that to give a shout out to our senator, who is very responsive, and also to all of the residents who have been pinging the hotline again and again.

And I'll tell you this, I will continue to make those calls.

And as we change Monroe Avenue you know, we change the lanes, we add some bike lanes.

Hopefully we make some code changes as well.

anyway, long way of saying we have a lot of work to do on Monroe Avenue, not just the potholes.

>> And after we come back from our break, Barbara's other points about her bills and affordability, we're going to talk about what Nate Salzman thinks local government's role is with that.

So whether it's housing, which we'll talk about, but also, I mean, does that largely fall outside of local government control?

Is there only so much you can do?

We'll discuss that.

My guest is Nate Salzman, a Brighton Town council member who is a candidate for supervisor.

He got the Democratic designation in a very, very close designation battle with the longtime supervisor, Bill Maley, who then announced that he would not continue to the primary and would not seek reelection after eight terms.

And so Nate Salzman is going to be the Democrat on the ballot in that town.

Listeners should know this, but I'm going to make this clear.

Just because we talk a lot of politics, when Nate Salzman is on the program, if there's a Republican on this race, in this race, that person is going to be invited on this program.

And when we talk to a Republican in another town, if there's a Democrat in that race, they're going to be invited.

We believe in bringing people together when we can, but we also believe in equal time and exploring these issues at length.

It's a big part of what we value.

And of course we have to do it.

But but we believe in it.

So but Nate's here.

And the larger issue is younger candidates challenging long time incumbents within their party.

You know, if that's taboo or if that should be celebrated.

And Nate Salzman is saying primaries and internal fights can be healthy if they're done respectfully.

So let's come right back and we'll talk policy next.

Coming up in our second hour, the team from City Magazine joins us in studio.

Their March issue is all about family.

But family means different things to different people.

Might be your blood relatives, might be your chosen family.

Might be people who you'd want to spend your most important or your best days with.

No matter how they're related to you.

We'll talk family with city next hour.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Bob Johnson Auto Group.

Believing an informed public makes for a stronger community.

Proud supporter of Connections with Evan Dawson focused on the news, issues and trends that shape the lives of listeners in the Rochester and Finger Lakes regions.

Bobjohnsonautogroup.com.

>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson let me kind of share out of school, so I'm not going to name who told me this, but I was talking to an elected leader.

I won't say what level, I won't say who this person was.

I won't say what party they were in.

But they recently said, after sitting down on the show, that they're surprised that more elected leaders don't come on because they feel like it forces them to sharpen their arguments and ideas, because it's not a 12 second soundbite.

No offense to where those 12 second soundbites go, but when you have to speak at length about issues and you don't know what you're going to be asked, it makes you better.

And I hope that everybody who's running for office and serves in office feels that way on this program that seeks to be the public square.

The audience, Barbara, is a great example, but I've got an email I'll read from Alex in a second.

We've got such a smart audience, so we want to continue to build this as the public square.

All parties, all ideas, all comers, right here on Connections.

And here is Alex, who writes to us to say regarding some of the themes from the first half hour, Alex says, I just don't understand the reactiveness by incumbents appeals to the idea of just wait your turn.

That mindset democracy, Republican democracy means electing the person who represents your constituents.

Winning an election means that you have your constituents consent.

It's public service.

If you fight and lose an election, that's a statement you don't deserve.

All future election results just because you've currently won the seat.

That's from Alex.

What do you make of that?

>> Amen.

Agree.

I come from the same school of thought, and maybe it comes from my early political history, Evan, which was, you know, I was a 21, 22 year old kid who wanted to manage campaigns.

And I didn't get great offers.

I got, hey, you can come work for this guy who's a one.

You know, he's a he's a town council member.

He wants to run for mayor.

Do you want to take that race?

And I took that race in Alexandria, Virginia, and I took that school board race in Prince William County, Virginia.

When the Democratic Party leader at the time said, what are you doing?

You're going to hurt all the other moderate Democrats.

And so I've just made a career out of taking these underdog races that, hey, it's better if you don't say anything.

And I did that here in Rochester as well with Assembly member Damon Meeks.

So Alex is 100% right.

And by the way, even even though I'm it looks like I will be the only candidate on the ballot, I believe it's my job to go sell to Barbara and to Alex.

You know, our vision.

And I'm still going to go knock on those doors.

And, you know, Evan, just this weekend I had three meet and greets.

each went for 2.5 hours.

And so, you know, with, with ten, 15, 20 people.

So I believe even when you're not in competition, you should still be going out there and trying to persuade people of your ideas.

>> And two years from now, if you're elected, two years from now, if someone in your own party primaries you or seeks the designation, you'll say, no problem.

That's right.

Let's have a debate.

>> Bring it on.

>> So you said you're you're a Democrat.

You're not a democratic socialist, correct?

Why aren't you a democratic socialist?

>> You know, I came up in the era of of Barack Obama changing the country and, and running that campaign.

And I've, you know, I was inspired by the movement of trying to bring people together, sitting down with people with different ideas.

And, you know, I've talked a little bit about my my past on the show.

Those first campaigns I was running, we were in Virginia and we were knocking on the doors of folks with Confederate flag tattoos.

>> And you were how old?

>> And I was 21, 22 years old, and I was going there with a candidate whose main message was he wanted a nondiscrimination policy in Prince William County schools because he felt that the gay and lesbian teachers were being discriminated against.

And I'd show up and I knock on the door of a Republican with a Confederate flag tattoo.

And I'd say, you know what?

I think we should treat our gay teachers better.

And and you know, those conversations, I'll tell you, this is back in 2015.

That didn't always start with, oh, wonderful, I agree, but I learned along the campaign trail in Virginia and Long Island and Colorado that you sit with people you don't agree with and you try to find common ground.

And I guess I've always kind of modeled my politics over, you know, on that level.

I don't I'm not so familiar with democratic socialists.

if, if, if those folks say, hey, we do that too, then great.

But that's I've always said I'm a Democrat because that's that's the style of politics I believe in.

>> Do you have any head or heterodox positions that would surprise your fellow Democrats?

>> That's a good you know, I think.

Well, you know, it's funny, on the campaign trail, I was knocking doors last night and I got to one door and they said, I don't know about voting for you, Nate.

I've heard you're a socialist.

>> Someone said that to you, I.

>> Swear to God.

And I said, well, let me tell you about my plan to build small business.

And we talked.

And then the next house.

I'm not joking.

The next house, they said, well, I don't know about voting for you, Nate.

I've heard you're owned by the big developers.

And I said, well, let me tell you about what I want to do to create more community spaces.

And, and so it's I think, you know, Evan, I think a lot of people are still getting to know me.

And as as we continue these conversations and a lot of my positions are, are hyper local.

so, so it might be it might be surprising to some folks to, to hear what I have to say specifically about, you know, parking minimums, which is something that I love to talk about.

>> Parking minimums.

parking minimums.

I would have stopped you right there because I didn't want to lose every last listener.

But it turns out, you know, over the years, what I've learned, if we talk parking, we get flooded with with responses.

People do that.

We we live in a region where people think you ought to be able to drive right where you're going, Park straight outside, walk straight in, have no friction.

And I get it like you grew up, used to that.

But people are very passionate about parking, so.

All right.

So give me parking minimums.

You're your quick campaign.

>> God bless you.

Thank you for doing this.

My wife said as I was leaving the door today.

She said, she said, Evan's not going to let you talk about parking.

>> Nobody wants to hear.

She's probably smarter than you, but she's wrong on this one, so go for it.

>> She is right.

So in our town, we have a very restrictive town code.

If you look at envision Brighton 2020, it's on our town's website.

It's it lays out the kind of town that people want, and it gives us the roadmap.

And one of those one of those instructions that this plan gives us is to eliminate mandatory parking minimums along Monroe Avenue, create a village like atmosphere on Monroe Avenue, and and that's not current policy.

And and it's not changing the eight years since we've passed this, this town plan.

So we say the town of Brighton says if you're building is X square foot, you must have y number of parking spaces.

And let me just pick on Aveeno's for a second, which is I love this restaurant.

It's right across the street from my house.

Aveeno's is on the corner of Monroe and Westfall.

They share a building, a parking lot with premium mortgage brokers.

Now, that's not a high traffic business, but they share a parking lot and when they are both open, we, the town of Brighton, have said, hey, you don't have enough parking spots, so if you can't open for lunch, these are local business owners who are trying to run their their small business, their restaurant, and they are losing income because they can't open for lunch.

Even though our town planning documents say we shouldn't have a mandatory parking minimums, we should have more foot traffic.

We should allow for outdoor dining.

Well then my argument has been, well, let's align our actual code with the with the plans that we've passed eight years ago.

And you know what?

I think it'd be a good idea to have a venous open for lunch.

>> So what's it going to take before you're even possibly the next supervisor?

You're on the town board.

Yeah.

What can happen right now to change that, for example.

>> Yeah I am I am trying to you know, this is a collaborative body.

You have to get three votes.

You have to get.

>> Who's opposed to this?

>> Well, I, you know, I don't want to out colleagues.

I want to say that they're still considering that I haven't convinced them yet is what I'd say.

but, you know, the first thing we have to do before you try to convince the colleagues.

I have to try to convince residents.

Most people, even when I talk about mandatory parking minimums, did what you just did, which is.

What are you talking about?

Mandatory parking minimums.

So step one, I want to use this campaign as a as a reason to educate folks on what our mandatory parking minimums and what is our code and why is our code the main reason we don't have more small businesses along Monroe Avenue?

And if I can educate the public through this campaign, then I feel great about bringing as supervisor, bringing this to public hearings, do some traveling town halls, show up in your community and talk about this, and then we can put it on the agenda to change the town code.

>> I'm going to distill the Aveeno story this way.

You remember when places used to be open for lunch?

We are not a lunch town anymore, correct?

I mean, there's some places open, but it's not like it used to be.

>> Correct?

>> So don't you want more options for lunch?

Well thank you.

Here's one reason you don't have one.

Okay, so I'm.

>> Gonna steal that brand.

>> Well that's perfect.

I mean, like, that's just.

That's what I hear.

People don't want to talk about parking.

People definitely want to talk about parking.

let me also ask you, you said last night you're talking to someone who's concerned about your relationship or your disposition toward developers, and it is definitely my experience that the more progressively left you go on the spectrum, you talk to voters who are more left, the more distrust or distaste they have for developers, and they talk about it openly.

Do you share that distrust or distaste for developers, or what's your relationship with developers?

>> No, I'll tell you this.

When I talk to I talk to all sorts of folks in this town.

I talked to people that are developers, coffee shop owners patrons of these coffee shops.

And I start from the platform of, tell me about what you do and what your goals are, and if your goals align with what we want to do.

You know, if you are a small business owner or a developer and you're saying, I want to open Evans Coffee Shop on Monroe Avenue, well, I want to work with you to open Evans Coffee Shop.

And so I try to go in there and with no preconceived notions and say, hey, let's talk about what our goals are.

And I've used the envision Brighton 2028 plan.

I mean, I'm bringing around this town document and saying, hey, this is my plan.

This is what I want to accomplish.

I think we should make it easier to allow for outdoor dining.

And some folks have said to me, well, Nate, you could allow for that now.

And I'd say, well, the current system actually favors the big businesses.

So we have such a restrictive town code and that the current system, if you want to get around it, you have to go through incentive zoning.

So you hire your government affairs representatives, your lawyers, you go to the supervisor's office.

it's a negotiation that could take years.

If your Whole Foods, you can make it through that negotiation and the town can get some nice benefits out of that.

Right.

We got some tax benefits.

We got a walking trail.

But if you're Evans coffee shop.

Well, Evan, I don't know how many lawyers you employ personally or how many government affairs representatives you can have.

You could bring on your team or how big of a check you can write.

The town of Brighton, but I got to tell you, it's not it's not fair to to, you know, the quote, unquote, the little guy.

And as a Democrat talking to other Democrats, I say, guys, our current system is not fair to small businesses.

It actually advantages the bigger developers.

>> Are you saying that's how Whole Foods got Dunne?

>> Whole foods was absolutely an incentive zoning project.

so was quickly.

>> Do you think it was a mistake?

>> No, no, and I don't want to relitigate Whole Foods.

No, I don't I don't believe it was a mistake.

I think that there should be a mechanism for for Whole Foods to be able to get built and a project like Whole Foods does require extensive zoning negotiations.

But Evans Coffee shop shouldn't if you want to.

If you want to open your coffee shop and you want to get your your license to serve food, and you want to replace two parking spaces with a pocket park, a bike rack, an outdoor dining, I don't think you should have to negotiate for a year and a half to do that, and I guess that's the distinction I would draw.

Sure, you're going to need to use incentive zoning sometimes, especially when it's something so big as Whole Foods.

But not not for Evans Coffee Shop.

>> Okay.

briefly here, let me go ahead and grab a phone call from Matthew and Brighton, and then we're going to close by just talking a little bit more about housing because we got to keep it tight.

Go ahead, Matthew and Brighton.

>> Yes.

Thank you.

I think we look forward to new policies and, especially transparency all sounds promising.

could you briefly comment on the board conspiring to get rid of Robin?

Thank you.

>> Board member Robin Wilt is who I think Matthews talking about.

Go ahead.

>> Yeah.

You know, the way it was phrased, I guess I would say, you know, there's a primary election, just like what I've been arguing for before, which is I would encourage all folks who have new ideas to get involved.

And, you know, we we welcomed a new colleague, Clara Sanguineti.

out of that race, there were three candidates, I believe, and somebody should fact check me.

She's the first Latina immigrant ever elected to the Brighton Town Council.

I have a lot of respect for council member Will, who's now engaged in her primary herself with Congressman Joe Morelli.

And, you know, I, I think, again, I go back to competition is good.

And giving voters a choice is a good thing.

>> Was there a conspiracy to get her off the board?

>> No, no, no.

>> Do you support her or Joe Morelli for that seat?

>> you know, it's funny, nobody I am going around carrying Congressman Joe Morelli's petitions.

I am you know, I've I've a very good relationship with the congressman, and I look forward to seeing him serve another term.

>> Can you do this real quickly?

Because we got to hit housing in the last two minutes.

But Bess says Bill Maley has been a strong and visible ally for the LGBTQ+ community.

We need that support.

And losing bill is a gut punch.

I hope we can expect the same from Nate.

>> Amen.

Yes, absolutely.

And.

And absolutely.

And, Bess, I'd love to sit with you and talk with you as well.

one of the great things that that was done under Supervisor Maley's leadership.

And by the way, I want to give a shout out to Councilmember Robin Wilt, who, who, who proposed this idea.

We created a Dei office, and Dr.

Miriam Moore leads that office.

She works with all different communities in Brighton to make sure everybody feels well represented, are welcomed, and I look forward to sitting with Dr.

Moore and figuring out how we can better expand her her role as well.

>> Okay, let's close.

By the way, you said that's best.

What's right?

No.

Oh, Mary, was that Dr.

Moore?

Yes.

She's on the community advisory board for WXXI.

That's just just good disclosure, okay.

Thank you, thank you.

Julie Williams.

Cool.

Last 90s.

So we'll come back on a different day and go deep on housing, because that's not all of what today was about.

Right.

But when people bring it up and they say, how can you actually do it?

What's the short pitch?

You're given door to door because I'm sure Supervisor Maley would say, we all want more housing.

Yeah.

What can you do that he has not done?

>> You could build vertically and you could build on some of these big empty parking lots.

You know, Winton Place Plaza, where Fox's Deli is and of course, and OFC creations, two businesses that I love.

Well, you can throw a bowling ball all the way down the parking lot and hit nothing.

And I'll tell you, I think a lot of these housing projects are not even brought to the open because they're, they're so contrary to what we have in the code right now, they start out in incentive zoning projects, and the community never even hears about them.

So the first thing I do is say all incentive zoning projects or housing in general should start in public so everybody can hear about them.

And then we should really tackle big, empty parking lots and start to build vertically as well.

>> Okay.

Build vertically.

Existing structures going higher.

>> Yeah.

>> That's right.

Are there I presume as we've seen in California, there are limits to how high you can go in certain places.

That's true.

Is that correct?

>> And you know, I don't want to get you wrong, Evan.

I'm not saying let's build a skyscraper on Monroe Avenue, but some of these existing homes right now, homes that were converted to maybe a nail salon, you could do a multi purpose, you could do a coffee shop on the bottom and two apartments on top.

And I think we need housing of all, all different sizes, not just the premium housing.

And by the way, when you make these, these developers or business owners go through extensive incentives, zoning, what you do is you increase the cost of the project so you end up with high end housing, even if you started with the intention of having affordable housing.

>> You want to come back.

Talk housing.

>> I'd love to anytime.

>> So you're invited for that.

Let me also say, I appreciate the idea that no matter who's on the ballot, you're going to run a race here.

Where do you want people to learn more about your campaign?

>> You can go to Knight for brighton.com.

>> Nate for Brighton.

Com f o r Brighton.

>> For.

>> Nate.com Nate Salzman is a Brighton Town council member.

He is the Democratic candidate for supervisor.

Thank you for coming in and telling your story here today.

>> Thanks a lot.

Love the show.

>> And our thanks again to supervisor Bill Maley, who decided not to come in today.

We respect that decision.

He is not running for reelection.

More Connections coming up in a moment.

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